American Constitution Society

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University of Pennsylvania Law School

Contact Information
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Location
3400 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States
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Chapter Contacts
  • Daniel Wolf - President, danielwo[at]law.upenn.edu
Recent Stories

"Post-Racial" America? Not Yet.

At noon on Wednesday, January 20th, Ryan Haygood, the Co-Director of Political Participation for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, spoke to a packed room of around 90 students and professors about current voting trends and why last year's historic election did not alter the need for action on voting rights. On the one-year anniversary of President Obama's election, Mr. Haygood discussed some important statistics from the 2008 presidential election and explained how they supported Congress's decision in 2006 to reauthorize Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. He then took questions ranging from the constitutionality of Section 5 to what LDF is doing today to address the current problems.

BYOB Dinner with Professor David Rudovsky

On Wednesday, October 28th, Penn Law ACS hosted a BYOB Dinner with Professor David Rudovsky at La Viola restaurant in center Philadelphia. Six Penn Law ACS members and one board member joined Prof. Rudovksy and over the course of more than two hours (and a few bottles of wine) discussed his career path, his memories of and thoughts on law school, and his views on current events including pending litigation and the upcoming D.A. election in Philadelphia.

Health Reform 101: Teach-In with Professor Barry Furrow

Penn and Drexel ACS came together for this event to hear from speaker Barry Furrow, who is the Director of the Health Law Program at Drexel and is an Associate at Penn's Center for Bioethics. His expertise spans a wide array of health-related topics, including health care policy, regulation and finance, patient safety, mental health, provider accountability, and medical ethics.

Furrow walked the audience through the development of healthcare in America, the progression and history of healthcare reform, the basic issues that this round of healthcare reform is attempting to deal with, and the pros, cons, and costs of the recently passed House bill.

About 50 students were in attendance, and many participated in the lively Q & A session following the lecture. Furrow answered questions and engaged the room in a lively discussion about healthcare- where we’re coming from, where we are, and where we’re going.

This event was also co-sponsored by Penn's Health Law Group and Penn's Bioethics Society.

Rebranding the War on Terror or Legitimizing a Persistent State of Hostility

This panel brought together a group of experts in the fields of criminal, international and national security law to discuss the Obama Administration's approach to some of the most controversial government practices in the "War on Terror," including detention and rendition policies, torture, and wiretapping and other privacy concerns.

This all-star panel featured Richard Shiffrin, former Deputy General Counsel (Intelligence) in the U.S. Department of Defense who served as the Acting General Counsel of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2003; Adjunct professor and Human Rights Watch activist Deborah Pearlstein; and Professor Stephanos Bibas, who specializes in criminal law at Penn. The panel was moderated by Professor Claire Finkelstein, who is currently researching a paper on the morality of torture.

Abortion and Reproductive Rights in the Era of Obama: Challenges and Possibilities

Penn ACS was honored to co-sponsor this panel with a great variety of the University's issue-focused groups. Other co-sponsors included the UPenn Journal of Law and Social Change, Penn Law Bioethics Society, Penn Law for Reproductive Justice, the Feminist Working group, and the Women Studies Program at Penn.

Panelists, and the topics they spoke on:
1) Anita Allen, Deputy Dean and Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvannia
"Partial Birth and Total Death: Violence, Heroism and the Politics of “Late-Term” Abortion”

2) Carole Joffe: Professor, Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, University of California, San Francisco
“The Legacy of Dr. George Tiller”

3) Kim Mutcherson, Rutgers-Camden Law School, Visiting Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania Law School
"Why Abortion Politics Matter for the Infertile"

4) Salamisha Tillet, Dept. of English, University of Pennsylvania
“Reproductive Justice in the Post-Feminist Era”

5) Susan Frietsche, Women's Law Project

Supreme Court Panel

Penn ACS welcomed a distinguished panel of experts for a fascinating discussion of the Supreme Court's past term and upcoming cases. Panelists were:

Debo P. Adegbile, Director of Litigation, NAACP LDF
Steven R. Shapiro, Legal Director, ACLU
Tom C. Goldstein, co-chair of the litigation and Supreme Court practices at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld; founder of SCOTUSblog
James A. Feldman, Instructor of Law, Penn Law, and former Assistant to the Solicitor General
and Moderator Kermit Roosevelt, Professor of Law, Penn Law.

Though the panelists tried not to sum up the cases from last term under one heading, i.e. good for progressives or bad for progressives, liberal or conservative, there was discussion of how such terms can be misleading and how votes cannot necessarily be summed up with such seemingly simple statistics. The audience of over 100 students, faculty, and local lawyers got to hear a more nuanced approach to the cases. We were also treated to expectations for the coming year, including some of the major First Amendment cases coming soon.

Introductory ACS Meeting

Penn ACS kicked off another year with an introductory meeting for 1Ls and other law students who were interested in getting involved in progressive legal issues. We had a packed room, not enough pizza, and a ton of interest! The event was successful at advertising ACS to the community, getting a big list of 1Ls, and generating enthusiasm for the coming year.

Penn ACS featured prominently on admitted student website

 

JudgesPanelUPENN

 

 

Penn ACS's programming for the past year was featured prominently for
admitted students on Penn's new "Beyond the Classroom" website. The
page feautured many of our exciting events from the past academic year,
including the Federal Judges Panel, lunch on Proposition 8 litigation,
Panel on Responses to Alleged crimes of the Bush Administration, and
lunch on organized labor and the Obama administration.

Federal Judges Panel: The Shifting Boundaries and Balance of Power after the Bush Administration

 

Penn ACS hosted a lively panel of four well-respected judges from across the country, moderated by Penn's own Anne Kringel. Judges on the panel were:
Judge Marsha Berzon, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Judge Kermit Lipez, First Circuit Court of Appeals
Judge Theodore McKee, Third Circuit Court of Appeals
Judge Lynn Adelman, Eastern District of Wisconsin
All discussed what we could potentially expect with a new administration and what effects this would have upon the judiciary. The reception afterward provided a terrific chance to meet and greet and the judges too!

Philadelphia Lawyer Chapter Hosts "Bloggers as America's Watchdog: New Administration, New Roles"

L to R: Adam Bonin, Daniel Urevick-Ackelsberg, Christy Hardin Smith, Baratunde Thurston, and John Aravosis.




Philadelphia Lawyer Chapter Hosts Inauguration Happy Hour

On January 20th, to celebrate another peaceful transition of power, the ACS Philadelphia Lawyers Chapter co-hosted a happy hour at the Plough and the Stars in Old City Philadelphia with Drinking Liberally Center City, Education Voters Pennsylvania, Philadelphia City Paper, Philadelphia Neighborhood Networks, Philadelphia Young Democrats, Philly for Change, the Plough & the Stars and two.one.five magazine. Hundreds of people attended and the ACS pocket Constitution was the hot item of the night.

Health Care Reform and the Election

We co-sponsored an event with the Penn Law Bioethics Society on the Future of Health Care Reform, featuring a panel made up of Prof. David Grande, MD, Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute, Wharton School, Lisa Codispoti, Senior Health Advisor, National Women's Law Center, and Leonard Cuello, Pennsylvania Health Law Project.

Ms. Codispoti explained how the NWLC approaches health reform using a gendered analysis, pointing out that in 40 states and DC it is actually legal to charge men and women different rates for health insurance. Mr. Cuello approached the issue from a state level, and said that the Bush administration has been pushing us towards privatization and that a McCain administration would continue this approach. Prof. Grande spoke about how to finance the healthcare system, noting that there is a huge split along political lines with regards to how exactly to accomplish this.

Around 70 students joined us for lunch and discussion and the event was a huge success!!

ACS QUIZZO

THE social event of the year, hosted by our chapter, is a Quizzo (Pub-Trivia) Competition. This year, 15 teams of 8 students, joined by Penn Professors and faculty members, battled it out for the title of "Quizzo Champion" on November 7. The winning team was "Frying Bacon", the Journal of Constitutional Law team (joined by Professor Kermit Roosevelt). The Best Team Name prize went to "Steven Burbank and the Special Masters" (in honor of Prof. Burbank's role as NFL Special Master in the Michael Vick hearings, which took place at Penn Law this fall). This event brought nearly 30 new members into our chapter and the National Organization.

In between rounds, we offered participants another opportunity to compete with each other - in our Charity Professor Art Auction. Professors and faculty at the Law School submitted hand-made crayon drawings for the auction. This event raised $640 for the Equal Justice Foundation's Summer Jackson-Healy Fund, a grant program for public interest work.

Happy Constitution Day!

The Penn ACS Chapter celebrated Constitution Day on September 18 by giving out candy to fellow students and drawing attention to the Constitution's origins and evolution over the course of history. Due to this event, our chapter gained nearly twenty new members and greatly increased our visibility to the first-year class.

School Integration: Litigating the Seattle Schools Case and Beyond

The Supreme Court's recent decision in Parents Involved (PICS) v. Seattle Schools represented an about-face in its educational diversity jurisprudence. Maree Sneed, partner at Hogan & Hartson, served as counsel of record on this landmark decision. She joined the Penn ACS Chapter and nearly 50 Penn Law students on Tuesday, October 30 to dicuss her involvement with the Seattle Schools litigation and its implications for future school integration efforts.

Stopped at the Threshold: Halting Civil Rights Cases Before They Start

The Penn Law Chapter of ACS recently hosted Professor Stevem Gey, Florida State Law School, a renowned scholar in the area of standing and the establishment clause. Professor Gey discussed the background and implications of Hein , and explained how the Supreme Court was using seven different procedural barriers to prevent plaintiffs from asserting their rights in court. Nearly 50 Penn Law students attended this engaging and insightful discussion. Penn Law would like to thank Prof. Gey for speaking at this event.

Penn Law Hosts Tom Goldstein for "How to Be a Litigator in the Roberts Court"

Penn Law's first ACS event of the school year was a rousing success. Professor Tobias Wolff and Akin Gump partner Tom Goldstein spoke to a packed house at our incoming students orientation on August 30th. The pair discussed their experiences with Supreme Court litigation, the implications of recent decisions, and several frameworks for analyzing the upcoming term. We look forward to events of equal caliber and substantial participation from the student body this year.

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